Keane Seeing Stars

14 July 2012

Ben Rhodes

Keith Keane spoke to PNE.Com after his debut in a North End shirt and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

And having almost marked his debut with the goal, Keane hopes to get more chances to add to his career tally: “I haven’t scored many in my career, only about eight in 300 games. I think I saw the stars when the ball was nearly going in, but if I can get up the pitch I’m not afraid to have a go; I just don’t normally find myself up there, but if I do get up there then I’ll try and score some more.”

“Every game is about playing as many minutes as you can; getting that fitness and doing it right. If you do it right then it is all leading up to the first game of the season, so you have to take it seriously, play as best you can and hopefully we can do it again on Tuesday night at Chorley.”

“You can turn an away game into a home game and I think we put on a decent performance for the fans and they have gone home happy today.

He was also impressed with the fantastic away following: “To have at an away game 75 per cent of the fans in the ground just shows you what great support this Club has.

“Everyone gets on well; no-one stands out – there are no groups and I think that can only help and as you will see in the games to come we will be fighting and scrapping for each other and that can only benefit the team.”

The team showed their togetherness throughout the afternoon and this is a trait the former Luton man thinks will become even more prevalent in the coming weeks: “One thing you will notice about this team is that there is a great bunch of lads.

“I started in right midfield and I happy to play wherever the manager wants me to play; I then found myself in centre mid and enjoyed myself out there.”

“If you look at the players the gaffer has brought in, there is plenty of ability in every area of the pitch and it showed with the two teams he put out; two teams that are more than capable of winning the game.

“You can do all the running in the world; every day you can work as hard as you want, but you never really get that match sharpness unless you play matches and that’s what we get paid to do. What we like to do is play football – we look forward to the games and I think we really enjoyed it today.

“In any game, no matter whether it is a friendly and a league game or a cup game, getting an early goal instils a little bit of calmness in the game and we just kind of went on from there.

“The manager has instilled in us that we have to be on the front foot, we have to attack teams. We want to win games and we are trying to do what the manager wants.

Keane started on the right side of midfield before moving into the middle of the park and felt the run out was of real benefit to him: “The first game of pre-season you are always going to be a bit rusty and a lot of the players are new, so it was always going to be about getting the win first of all, and then learning to play with each other and what everyone’s abilities are; what they are good at, what they are not so good at and I think it was a good game for us today,” he said.

The new signing played the first half at Haig Avenue, setting up the first goal and almost grabbing one himself.